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A question that came up after this talk I gave on death and Plato's Phaedo centered, first, on the role of psychedelics in understanding the nature of death and, second, on what I thought about the possibility that Socrates, Plato, and others partook in psychedelics rites. https://twitter.com/AE_Robbert/status/1246456787416444928
On the 1st question, How do psychedelics help us understand death? I'd recommend that readers check out the studies being done at Johns Hopkins:
https://maps.org/other-psychedelic-research/211-psilocybin-research/psilocybin-studies-in-progress/1268-johns_hopkins_study_of_psilocybin_in_cancer_patients
TL;DR: Psychedelics reduce the anxiety of death in those about to face it, in a kind of Socratic equanimity.
https://maps.org/other-psychedelic-research/211-psilocybin-research/psilocybin-studies-in-progress/1268-johns_hopkins_study_of_psilocybin_in_cancer_patients
TL;DR: Psychedelics reduce the anxiety of death in those about to face it, in a kind of Socratic equanimity.
I'm not a clinical reductionist about these matters, especially since you don't need a clinical trial to observe the benefits of psychedelics, & because the clinical setting can introduce secondary effects on the experience, but these are good studies w/ bearing on the inquiry.
The 2nd question, Did Socrates & others partake in psychedelic rites? Is less straightforward, but scholars like William Richards has a book, Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics & Religious Experience, that takes up this theme, & @michaelpollan mentions it in his latest work, as well.
The most promising answer, IMO, is that Socrates and Co likely ingested a psychedelic beverage called kykeon, as part of the Eleusinian Mystery rites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kykeon
I do not think this is the mainstream view (yet), so I don't want to misrepresent the scholarship.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kykeon
I do not think this is the mainstream view (yet), so I don't want to misrepresent the scholarship.
That said, if you check out the studies, consider the Platonic connection w/ the Eleusinian Mysteries, look at how Socrates is depicted in the Phaedo etc., examine the themes he often conjures (e.g., recollection), & do a little exploring on your own, a different picture emerges.
This idea doesn't undercut the mainstream view of Platonic dialogues as centered on uses of reason & dialectical thinking. It's a supplement to them.
John Cooper holds the view that we should view reason as the most significant aspect of this philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/Pursuits-Wisdom-Philosophy-Socrates-Plotinus-ebook/dp/B007BOK5QW/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=john+m.+cooper&qid=1586444072&sr=8-5
John Cooper holds the view that we should view reason as the most significant aspect of this philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/Pursuits-Wisdom-Philosophy-Socrates-Plotinus-ebook/dp/B007BOK5QW/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=john+m.+cooper&qid=1586444072&sr=8-5
I've written about why I don't find Cooper's view convincing, advocating for Pierre Hadot's idea that philosophy should be read as rooted in spiritual exercise:
https://knowledge-ecology.com/2019/08/23/reason-and-spiritual-exercises/
Hadot doesn't say this, but I suspect psychedelics were involved in some of those exercises.
https://knowledge-ecology.com/2019/08/23/reason-and-spiritual-exercises/
Hadot doesn't say this, but I suspect psychedelics were involved in some of those exercises.
All of this is to suggest, there's an interesting congruence here among first-person experience, clinical studies, & historical scholarship. Surely, I wouldn't reduce Socratic philosophy to psychedelics, but I wouldn't undercut the potential influence of them on it either.
Here is @doctormickey with further support (and with further concision) for this idea: https://becomingintegral.com/2013/09/19/was-plato-on-drugs/
